Annual Report: 2000-2001
June 29, 2001
The Computing Services Special Interest section enjoyed a productive previous twelve months marked by two overall themes. The first theme focused on efforts to gain increasing visibility within the Association and among CS-SIS section members. The second theme was the continuation of successful projects and activities developed in recent years.
In terms of the first theme, the greatest accomplishment of this year's CS-SIS was the resurrection of the CS-SIS Newsletter . The Publications Committee (James Duggan, chair) served as an advisory committee for the editors of the newsletter, Liz Glankler and Sandra Braber-Grove. The Publications Committee established a "Name the New Newsletter" Contest with an award of $50 to the successful submission. James Duggan generously donated the $50 prize money. The winning entry was Connecting... Connecting... was published twice this past year, both in print to all CS-SIS members and simultaneously on the CS-SIS web site. The first issue came out in December 2000 and Liz Glankler served as the primary editor for that issue. The second issue was published in June 2001 and Sandra Braber-Grove was the primary editor for that issue. The two issues of Connecting... included both news from the CS-SIS as well as informative articles in the area of technology. Two recurrent columns were "Ask the Guru," which has responses to technology-related questions sent to the editors, and "On the Front Lines," a column by Ken Hirsh reviewing the past, present and future of law library computing.
The CS-SIS also achieved greater visibility among the entire Association by frequent write ups in the SIS column in The Spectrum. Information about the CS-SIS was included in almost all of the SIS columns in The Spectrum during the past year. Some of the activities that were highlighted in these articles include the Job Descriptions Database, the Grants program, the CS-SIS Breakfast, and CS-SIS Strategic Plan. The CS-SIS will also be featured in two articles in the Annual Meeting newspaper News From Up North. Jean Willis (Member-at-Large) and Sheri Lewis (Chair) will preview various CS-SIS Annual Meeting activities in these articles.
The CS-SIS has enjoyed highly-qualified and competitive election slates and this year was no exception. The Nominating Committee (James Duggan, chair) worked to attract a fine group of candidates for the three offices in contention this year. Following upon the passage of a bylaws amendment last year, the section elected the second of its two members-at-large this year, Susan Boland. Elected as Secretary/Treasurer was Dominick Grillo. And the new Vice Chair/Chair elect will be Liz Glankler. These new officers will join James Duggan (Chair), Sheri Lewis (Past Chair) and Jean Willis (Member-at-Large) to comprise the 2001-2002 CS-SIS Executive Board. Leaving the CS-SIS Board this year, with many thanks for their excellent contributions, are Lyonette Louis-Jacques (Past Chair) and Don Arndt (Secretary/Treasurer).
The Computing Services Special Interest Section has expanded its schedule of events for the upcoming AALL Annual Meeting in Minneapolis. This year, the CS-SIS will be offering two roundtables, scheduled at separate times, in order to offer section members more opportunities for professional development through discussion on topics of interest. One roundtable offering will be on Web Design and Maintenance, following up on the highly successful roundtable on Web Sites of two years ago. Barbara Ginzburg and Dominick Grillo will coordinate the Web Design and Maintenance Roundtable. The second roundtable will be on a topic of interest to many section members, Technology Competencies. Kris Niedringhaus and Vicki Szymczak will coordinate this roundtable. The Technology Competencies Roundtables follows the CS-SIS sponsored program, H4: "Key Competencies for the Key Cogs in Your Value Network: Your IT Staff" and, therefore, offers an expanded opportunity for enlightenment on this important topic.
Also new to this year's AALL Annual Meeting schedule is a CS-SIS Executive Board meeting which will include both the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 section officers. This meeting will be held on Saturday, July 14, just before the official start of the convention. The joint meeting will enable incoming and outgoing officers to do some proactive planning for the year as well as the exchange of information that will facilitate a smooth transition for the new board.
Over a year and a half ago, the CS-SIS developed, through the creativity of Robert Linz and Don Arndt, the Job Descriptions Database. This database serves as a repository of technology-related law positions offered in both a searchable and browseable interface. The creators have continued to improve upon this database and will help to achieve greater visibility for it with an educational program at this year's annual meeting, G-3: We're Hiring: Designing Job Descriptions to Attract the Very Best.
A second theme for the Computing Services SIS this year was the continued, and improved, status quo for several CS-SIS activities. A number of successful ongoing functions should be mentioned.
This year's AALL Annual Meeting will include the Third Annual CS-SIS Breakfast. Originally instituted in 1999, the breakfast has a created a less formal, and quite collegial, social event for section members attending the Association meeting. And again for the third year, the CS-SIS has helped finance the cost of the breakfast for its membership. 55 section members have registered for the CS-SIS breakfast. Following upon the successful inclusion of a featured speaker at last year's breakfast, the Third Annual Breakfast will feature speaker Mark Folmsbee, Washburn University Law Library, who will share his experiences in a talk entitled, "The Dirty Little War of Strategic Planning, and Other Tales of an AALL Executive Board Veteran."
The CS-SIS will continue to be a co-sponsor of the Joint SIS Reception (CS/TS/OBS/RIS) again this year in Minneapolis. Mila Rush (CS-SIS's representative on the Joint Planning Committee) helped to coordinate what hopes to be a lovely event. This year's reception is co-sponsored by Innovative Interfaces, as in the past, and St. Thomas University Law School, which also serves as the location for the event.
The CS-SIS continued its success in developing educational offerings for the AALL Annual Meeting. The Program Committee (Sheri Lewis, Chair) submitted ten program proposals to the Annual Meeting Program Selection Committee. The following CS-SIS sponsored programs were selected for the 2001 Minneapolis meeting: (1) Using Metadata to Increase Visibility: The GPO Access Search Engine Project (Kris Niedringhaus, coordinator); (2) New Roles: Hitching Reference Librarians to the Web Rocket (Jean Willis, coordinator); (3) Key Competencies for the Key Cogs in Your Value Network: Your IT Staff (Lyonette Louis-Jacques, coordinator); (4) We're Hiring: Designing Job Descriptions to Attract the Very Best (Don Arndt, coordinator). As in previous years, the CS-SIS held an informal gathering at the CALI Conference in June. James Duggan (Vice-Chair, Chair-Elect) helped lead a discussion of programming ideas for the 2002 AALL Annual Meeting in Orlando. There will also be a planning meeting of the Program 2002 Committee at the upcoming Annual Meeting.
The successful grants program from last year continued for a second year under the stewardship of chair, Jean Willis. Again, the CS-SIS was to offer support for professional activities for members of the Association. The CS-SIS Grants program was advertised on the CS-SIS web site, through listserv postings, and in articles in the SIS column in The Spectrum. The following law librarians will be awarded full grants towards a Member Program Registration at the 2001 AALL Conference in Minneapolis:
Amy Moberly, California Western School of Law Library
D.J. Morrison, Oregon Supreme Court Library
Chris Tighe, U.S. District Court Library, Southern District of Illinois
The CS-SIS adopted its first Strategic Plan on July 20, 1999. That two-year plan was ripe for reexamination in 2001, so a special committee was formed last fall to take on this task. Strategic Planning Committee chairs, Mark Folmsbee and Kris Niedringhaus, reviewed and revised the previous plan and, following upon one of the plan's directives, conducted a membership survey to better inform the CS-SIS leadership on the interests of the section's members.
During the past few years, the CS-SIS has gained a reputation for having some of the most desirable giveaways at its table in the activities area of the Annual Meeting. The Recruitment and Involvement Committee (Liz Glankler, chair) continues this fine tradition. During the upcoming CONELL Marketplace, the CS-SIS will be distributing pocket solar calendars as well as a wealth of information on the section and copies of its new newsletter, Connecting... Giveaways planned for the activities table include foam flyers, in an assortment of colors, and the ever popular gourmet chocolate mints.
The CS-SIS membership communicates throughout the year via its own listserv and web site. Darin Fox has continued to maintain the section's website and will be attending an AALL-sponsored training session for Chapter and SIS website managers at the upcoming Annual Meeting. The CS-SIS listserv was auto-populated in the early Fall, which helped facilitate communications early in the year.
The Computing Services Special Interest Section has concluded a year of growth and stability. With the continuation of strong leadership and active participation and enthusiasm, the CS-SIS is poised to continue as one of the dynamic special interest groups in AALL.
Respectfully submitted,
Sheri Lewis, CS-SIS Chair, 2000-2001